


Semester Six

by Lithal



Series: Dorks in University [7]
Category: Haikyuu!!, Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, Self-Indulgent, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 01:13:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17234636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lithal/pseuds/Lithal
Summary: Words used: for, dam, slays, die, bongs, vines, er, jot, apex, tup, apes, awe, death, je, axes, reo, kaf, za, zip, mile, cab.





	Semester Six

Before Kasamatsu knew it, it was the second semester of his third year. First semester had gone fairly well, but he knew all the courses he was taking this term were the more difficult ones, and he was pretty concerned for his sanity. Winter break had been more stressful than he had wanted it to be; one of his brothers had fallen and broken his leg, and since their parents had decided to take a vacation in Australia, Kasamatsu had had to deal with taking his crying brother to the hospital. He had also had to take care of his brother after his leg had been put in a cast, because his other brother made himself scarce, claiming he had social obligations to fulfil. Kasamatsu was glad to be back at the apartment, even though it smelled a little. They had left food in the fridge that had gone bad.

“Senpai!” Kise poked his head in the kitchen and said brightly. “You’re back!”

“Yeah, I’m back,” Kasamatsu said, walking out of the kitchen. “When did you get back?”

“An hour ago. My sister sent something for you.” 

“Oh?”

“C’mon, I’ll give it to you,” Kise said enthusiastically, taking Kasamatsu’s hand and pulling him along to the bedroom. Kise’s sister’s gift to him turned out to be a mug with the inscription, ‘I’ll sleep when I die,’ on it.

“Wow,” Kasamatsu said. He had a feeling this was going to be his life this semester.

* * *

 

The start of the semester was suspiciously lax, and Kasamatsu couldn’t help but think that this was the calm before the storm. Even though he knew the dam was going to burst and he’d be in danger of getting swept away, he couldn’t stop himself from procrastinating and doing anything but keeping up with assignments and studying. It was a small comfort that everyone else seemed to be doing the same. Most people were partying and being social, probably anticipating that they would all soon become hermits.

The sudden social fever that had struck everyone didn’t spare their apartment, and Kasamatsu returned home one day, about three weeks into the semester, to find Takao sitting on the floor with a controller, tongue sticking out in concentration, furiously button mashing. Kenma sat next to him, easily beating the shit out of Takao’s character.

“Hi, Kasamatsu-san,” Takao said, after his character was knocked out. “How’s it going?”

“Good. How are you?” Kasamatsu asked.

“Great. Want to play a round against me? I’m tired of being decimated. Kenma slays,” Takao said. Kenma offered his controller to Kasamatsu, and that was how Kasamatsu found himself settling down in front of the TV, ready to play a game against Takao.

Kasamatsu selected a random character, and the fight began. Sticking to his go-to strategy, Kasamatsu began spamming one move, and managed to win a round before eventually losing the game. Takao was competitive, but not as much as Kise. And unlike Kise, he kept up a pleasant chatter and even got excited when Kasamatsu accidentally used a special move. A few more rounds later, Kasamatsu admitted to himself that Takao was a lot of fun to play games with; maybe more so than Kise, because Kise tended to get frustrated when he lost too  many times.

Kasamatsu glanced at the time and found that they had been playing for an hour. He should really start on an assignment that was due next week. He would start tomorrow. He turned back to the game. Takao had selected a new character, and was in the process of laughing himself stupid at something Kasamatsu couldn’t quite place a finger on.

“I’m sorry, the bongs are just too funny to me,” Takao said, wiping tears of laughter out of his eyes after Kasamatsu had thrashed his character. He giggled again. “It’s even funnier because the character looks like Shin-chan.”

“Shin-chan?” Kasamatsu repeated.

“He’s talking about Midorimacchi, Senpai,” Kise said from his seat at the table. Kasamatsu hadn’t even noticed him come home. “Don’t you have work to do?” he added coldly.

Takao looked at his watch. “Right you are,” he said easily. “We should totally play again, Kasamatsu-san.”

“Sure,” Kasamatsu said.

Takao said goodbye to Kenma, who was curled on the couch with a handheld, and then waved bye to Kise, who nodded stiffly. As soon as he was gone, Kasamatsu turned to Kise with a frown. “Why were you so rude to him?”

“I’m just tired,” Kise said. He stood up and went to the bedroom before Kasamatsu could say anything else. Ignoring Kise’s sudden moodiness, Kasamatsu shrugged and went to the kitchen to get some dinner.

* * *

That Friday night, Kasamatsu was in the bedroom, wasting his time watching a documentary about grape vines and vineyards when voices from outside distracted him. He went out to see what the commotion was, and found a very flustered Kenma at the door, trying to deal with a group of noisy people.

“Kasamatsu!” Imayoshi called out as soon as Kasamatsu stepped forward to rescue Kenma. “Let’s hang out!”

“What,” Kasamatsu said.

“Invite us in,” Imayoshi said, indicating him and the people who were with him. “Time ta party. We’ve got booze.”

“Why are you all _here_?” Kasamatsu said, going to the door. Kenma took the opportunity to retreat and stand behind him.

“We thought you’d be a good sport and host us this fine evenin,’” Imayoshi said.

“I live with three other people,” Kasamatsu said. “I’ll have to ask if it’s okay with them.”

“Aww, c’mon,” Imayoshi said. “It’ll be fun.”

“Er. What’s happening?” Kuroo asked from outside. 

“Kuroo-kun!” Imayoshi said happily. “Was just tryin’ ta convince Kasamatsu ta let us in for a party.”

“I didn’t know we were having a party at our place,” Kuroo said, squeezing past them and coming inside. “You got booze?”

“Nah,” Imayoshi said. “I know you’d never let us borrow your place for a party with booze.”

“You just said you had booze,” Kasamatsu said dryly.

“A white lie. ‘m not past lyin’ to get what I want,” Imayoshi said shamelessly.

“Of course you aren’t,” Kasamatsu said.

“Can we come in then?” Imayoshi asked them.

“Let us think about it,” Kuroo said, and shut the door in Imayoshi’s face. “Where’s Kise?”

“He should be back soon,” Kasamatsu said.

“Okay, well. Are you two okay with having them here? I don’t really care as long as nobody makes a mess,” Kuroo said.

Kenma shrugged. “I’m just going to stay in our room,” he said.

“I’m find with it, I guess,” Kasamatsu said. “Don’t know what they have planned though.”

“Probably just board games or card games,” Kuroo said. “Imayoshi’s big on those. He hosted a bunch in his room in first year.”

“He said you never went to any parties,” Kasamatsu said, remembering the time he had gotten wasted at Imayoshi’s place.

Kuroo raised his eyebrows. “I’m not much of a partier. I guess we just need to tell Kise about this impromptu party. Oh yeah, we’re not providing anyone with any food either. So if they’re hungry they can order in or bring their own food.”

“Sure,” Kasamatsu said. He opened the door, and found Imayoshi talking to Kise.

“Kasamatsu. You never said you had a Miracle livin’ with you here,” Imayoshi said, turning his attention back to Kasamatsu. “Man, I wish I’d had you instead of that brat Aomine.”

“Looks like we’re having a party, as long as Kise agrees,” Kuroo said.

“Sure,” Kise said. “I’m going to go to bed, though.”

“You do that,” Imayoshi said. “We’ll stay quiet.”

Kasamatsu didn’t think that was going to happen, but he didn’t say anything. He would have to monitor the noise levels and make them quiet down if they got too loud.

And that was how they ended up being forced into hosting a get-together. It ended up being pretty fun, Kasamatsu thought, but he would rather someone else host next time.

* * *

 

Another week passed, and suddenly all the deadlines were looming on Kasamatsu’s head. The others were probably in the same boat, but he didn’t have time to pay much attention to them. He spent most of his time holed up in an empty study room he had discovered the access code to, and typically only returned home to sleep. He only had to make it through another couple of days, and then he could relax a bit until the next week from hell.

He looked at his watch, and decided he had done enough for the day. He quickly shoved his stuff into his bag and headed back. He was stifling a yawn when someone walking in his direction enthusiastically waved at him. Frowning, he looked behind him to make sure the wave was meant for him, and cautiously waved back. The other person jogged towards him.

“Kasamatsu-san!” It was Takao. “You’re on campus late. Heading back?”

“Yeah,” Kasamatsu said. He didn’t understand how Takao still had so much energy.

“Do you want to grab a coffee?” Takao asked. “I’ll pay. I have some questions about program selection.”

“Uh, sure,” Kasamatsu said. “Why didn’t you just ask Kenma your questions.”

“I’m pretty sure he’d rather I ask someone else,” Takao said. “I know a really nice coffee place on the way to your apartment.”

“Okay,” Kasamatsu said. Coffee was probably not the best idea, but he wasn’t about to turn down a free drink. He blamed student life for this.

The place Takao took him to was nice and warm, and smelled very nice. Kasamatsu was surprised he hadn’t seen this before. This might become a regular haunt for him. He ended up getting the signature drink, which turned out to be delicious. He would have to bring Kise here sometime.

“So, what do you want to know?” he asked Takao after they had taken a table. Takao even pulled out a tiny notebook to jot down notes.

“Just tell me what you did,” Takao said, pen poised.

Kasamatsu did, and ended up talking to Takao about school for an hour, which was longer than he had anticipated. When he finally got home, he found Kise on the couch, scrolling through his phone.

“Senpai! Do you want to go out for dinner?”

“No, I’m not hungry. Just went to a café with Takao,” Kasamatsu said.

“Oh. I see,” Kise said, all warmth gone from his voice. He went back to scrolling through his phone.

* * *

 

Kasamatsu returned from a very long study session at the study room on a Thursday night another couple of weeks later, and found Kuroo on the couch, reading a book. He was making a very strange face, and seemed to be curling into himself as he read. It was a very interesting sight.

“Are you cringing?” Kasamatsu asked.

Kuroo looked up from the book with a pained expression. “Yes. I am. I’m a hundred pages in and I’ve already had to endure three really poorly written sex scenes, all of which use the phrase, ‘apex of thighs’ at least once. The author even used the word tup in one of the scenes,” he said, shuddering. “ _Why would the author do that_?”

“Why are you still reading it? Just stop,” Kasamatsu said.

“I promised a friend I would read it,” Kuroo said miserably. “I made a mistake. I’d rather go and watch the documentary about how different species of apes have sex that I watched in psych again.”

“Wow, those must be some really bad sex scenes,” Kasamatsu said. “If you’re rather watch monkeys having sex.”

“Apes,” Kuroo corrected. “But yes. I am in awe at how bad they are. Ugh, death take me.”

Kasamatsu rolled his eyes. “Stop being dramatic. Just skim it.”

“Je ne te comprends pas,” Kuroo said.

“What the fuck. What language is that?” Kasamatsu said.

“French,” Kuroo said. “This book is scrambling my brain.”

“Take a break,” Kasamatsu suggested.

“Once I get to two hundred pages,” Kuroo said, and went back to the book.

* * *

 

It seemed that the universe was against Kasamatsu. It was the beginning of March, and he realized that he had managed to spend the entire term without properly hanging out with Kise once. Kise had also been pretty moody, for some reason, and Kasamatsu hadn’t found the right time to talk to him about it. He had been too busy trying to keep up in his courses, which all seemed to be dangling axes over his head. But now that he had just gotten through his second hell week, he could relax and catch his breath. He had a vague idea that Kise had a really busy week this week. He would take him out to dinner next week, once Kise got through his own tests and assignments.

Right now, though, he was going to relax by joining Takao in the living room and playing some games. He wondered how Takao managed to come over so often, but he figured the freshman would stop if his grades started to suffer too much. As they played a racing game, Takao chattered first about REO properties, and then about the Arabic elective he was taking, and how he had managed to mess up kaf and za on a test, but had otherwise done okay. 

“Why are you taking Arabic as an elective again?” Kasamatsu asked.

Takao shrugged. “Why not?”

Kasamatsu had nothing to say to that. He knew Kuroo was taking French as an elective, and Kenma was taking Sanskrit, which he hadn’t even known the school offered. Maybe he should take a foreign language elective too.

The apartment door opened and someone walked in. Kasamatsu didn’t pay much attention to the new arrival, until he heard Kise ask, “Senpai, do you have some time?”

“Just hold on a few minutes,” Kasamatsu said.

Thirty minutes later, Takao stood to zip up his hoodie, said he had better head back to study for an upcoming test, and Kasamatsu remembered that Kise had wanted to talk. After saying goodbye to Takao, he went to the bedroom to find Kise curled up in bed. It was the middle of the day, and Kasamatsu was very concerned.

“Kise?” he asked. 

“You’re done gaming with Takao?” Kise asked, his voice tight.

“Yeah, he just left. Are you okay?”

“I’m just _peachy_ , Senpai.”

“You really don’t sound like it.”

“Yeah? What do I sound like then?”

“You sound like you’re trying to pick a fight,” Kasamatsu said. “And you sound hurt. Did I do something?”

“We don’t have to stay together if you don’t want to,” Kise said, his voice cracking.

Kasamatsu stood in place, shocked and confused. He didn’t know how long he stood like that, but it was long enough for Kise to try and fail at keeping himself from crying. It was the sobs that spurred Kasamatsu into action. He quickly walked to the side of the bed and kneeled next to it so he was facing Kise, who looked at him with tear-filled eyes. 

“What are you talking about?” he said, as gently as he could, wiping away Kise’s tears. “Of course I want to stay together.”

Kise didn’t look like he believed him. Kasamatsu sighed. “Scooch over.” When Kise moved over, he climbed into the bed. “Why do you think I don’t want to be with you?” he asked, smoothing some of Kise’s hair away from his eyes.

“You don’t ever have time for me,” Kise said. “It looks like you’d rather spend time with Takao or your other friends instead of me. We don’t even see each other much anymore, and we live in the same room. I’ve also been really stressed out about tests and assignments and I’m pretty sure I failed the test I wrote today, and I don’t know what to do.” He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palm. Kasamatsu put his hand on Kise’s and moved it away from his eyes, and gently pressed his lips to Kise’s.  

“I’m sorry I haven’t been spending enough time with you,” he said after pulling away. “And I’m sorry I didn’t realize how stressed you were, both about us and about your coursework. I’m sure the test went better than you think. And even if it didn’t, a lot of first year professors allow a bunch of different marking schemes to give everyone the highest mark possible. Don’t worry, okay?”

Kise nodded a little, still visibly upset. Kasamatsu kissed him again. “We’re going out for dinner on Saturday, okay? Wherever you want. Even if I have to walk a mile on foot or call a cab,” he added, trying to lighten the mood. Kise gave him a watery smile. “Do you want something to drink? Tea? Hot chocolate?”

“No,” Kise said. His breathing was less shaky now, which sent a wave of relief through Kasamatsu. He really needed to be more attentive to Kise. He had to remember this was only his second semester at university, and he was probably still adjusting to everything.

“Okay, then. Why don’t you take a nap?” Kasamatsu suggested, stroking Kise’s cheek with his thumb.

“Take a nap with me, Senpai,” Kise said, plaintively.

“I will,” Kasamatsu reassured him. “Go to sleep. We’ll order some noodles when we wake up.”

Kise nodded and closed his eyes. His breathing evened out a few minutes later, and Kasamatsu felt himself relax. He had a feeling that the rest of the semester was going to be better; they only needed to make sure they communicated better. He pressed a light kiss on Kise’s forehead and closed his eyes. He desperately needed a nap. 

**Author's Note:**

> Words used: for, dam, slays, die, bongs, vines, er, jot, apex, tup, apes, awe, death, je, axes, reo, kaf, za, zip, mile, cab.


End file.
